Smoke Screen by Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger (translated by Megan Turney)

I'm so pleased to be sharing my review of Smoke Screen, the new book from Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, featuring Alexander Blix and Emma Ramm who we first met in last year's Death Deserved. Huge thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me to join the blog tour and to the publisher for my review copy. I will be buying my own print copy.

The Blurb:

Oslo, New Year’s Eve. The annual firework celebration is rocked by an explosion and the city is put on terrorist alert. Police officer Alexander Blix and blogger Emma Ramm are on the scene, and when a severely injured survivor is pulled from the icy harbour, she is identified as the mother of two-year-old Patricia Semplass, who was kidnapped on her way home from kindergarten ten years earlier… and never found.

Blix and Ramm join forces to investigate the unsolved case, as public interest heightens, the terror threat is raised, and it becomes clear that Patricia’s disappearance is not all that it seems…

The second in the hard-boiled and furiously compelling Blix & Ramm series, created by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst, two of the biggest names in Nordic Noir. 

Smoke Screen was published by Orenda Books as an ebook on 18th December 2020 and in paperback on 18th February 2021. It is available to purchase from Orenda Books, Bookshop, Hive or your usual preferred bookseller. 

My Review:

The events in Smoke Screen take place very soon after those in Death Deserved. You don't need to have read the first book in the series to enjoy this - it works perfectly as a standalone - but as always with a series I feel you will have a richer reading experience if you check out the first book before coming to this one. 

Revellers are celebrating the turn of the year at the harbour close to Oslo City Hall including journalist Emma Ramm who is determined to put to bed a fearful notion she's had following the events of book one. On the stroke of midnight a bomb goes off killing four and injuring many more. Terrorism is suspected but when one of the most seriously injured victims is identified as the mother of a toddler who was kidnapped ten years previously and never found, Blix is convinced the attack is somehow linked to her. And he's willing to go up against his superiors in order to follow this kind of investigation. Emma senses a story in there and although she's struggling with a personal situation, sets out to see what she can dig up.

I love Alexander Blix. He's devoted to his job and doesn't have much of a life outside of it. I worry about him a little if I'm honest because he's on his own too much, although I was delighted to see him spending more time with his daughter this time around. But he's a solid, sound man, principled and a good detective. Dedicated and determined, in Smoke Screen he's like a dog with a bone, not willing to let go of the thin thread in his grasp, that but feeling that all is not what it seems. 

Young Emma has already been through lots of trauma in her twenty years, and she doesn't get it easy in this book either. She is determined to prove her worth as the crime reporter for an online newspaper and she tends to focus on her work in order not to deal with other things. She is also determined and headstrong, often recklessly putting herself at risk for the sake of a story. But she has excellent taste in contemplative music - an inspired choice and one I have enjoyed myself many times! 

The relationship between Alexander and Emma is an unusual and complex one. He feels a responsibility towards her stemming from an incident many years earlier, and she has come to view him as a father figure. But he is a cop and she is a journalist, so there are boundaries, limits as to what each can share with the other, Blix particularly, but limits are pushed and boundaries crossed. I do worry a little that Emma uses Alexander a bit whereas he seems to genuinely care about her. As I say, a complex relationship. 

The first half of the book is quite slow building as Blix's department investigates the bombing and he begins to look at the case of missing Patricia Semplass with fresh eyes. A lot of the key characters don't come into play in a big way until later in the story but my heart ached for Christer Storm Isaksen, shut away in a prison cell. The more minor players are exquisitely drawn (as are the main ones, of course) - there is a hotel cleaner whose movements and thoughts I followed with mounting dread - so well written. 

This is a story of a friendship tested to the limit, a broken family, lies, betrayal, murder, and an innocent wee girl. The latter part of the book is filled with tension as both our heroes put their necks on the line. The denouement is terrifying, explosive and, ultimately, sad, but there is a glimmer of hope at the end of the book for a couple of characters. Overall this is a tense, dark and often unsettling crime thriller, beautifully written by two skilled authors clearly in tune with each other. I don't know how the work is shared out between the pair as the whole thing flows seamlessly - I am in awe! I'm delighted there is a third Blix and Ramm on the way and await it impatiently! 

PS. Read the acknowledgements - they're fun! 

The Authors:

Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger are the internationally bestselling Norwegian authors of the William Wisting and Henning Juul series respectively.

Jørn Lier Horst first rose to literary fame with his No. 1 internationally bestselling William Wisting series. A former investigator in the Norwegian police, Horst imbues all his works with an unparalleled realism and suspense.

Thomas Enger is the journalist-turned-author behind the internationally acclaimed and bestselling Henning Juul series. Enger’s trademark has become a darkly gritty voice paired with key social messages and tight plotting. Besides writing fiction for both adults and young adults, Enger also works as a music composer.

Death Deserved was Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger’s first co-written thriller. They are currently working on the third book in the Blix & Ramm series.